Star Scene: Colin Hay

Colin Hay’s scene is cooking a bit of food and playing guitar and bongos in the lounge room as the night wears on. He agrees that it’s a good scene.

He explains – You know the band I’m working with they often pop around too, and they love playing live cause they’re really skilled fantastic musicians and so we often cook and play all kinds of different music so it’s a lot of fun listening to them.

The APIA Tour. Click for the full gallery

He’s on his way back to Australia this February for a tour with the band. He was out here last year as a solo artist for the APIA Good Times Tour.

Hay: I’ve got a lovely band. Oh they all live in Los Angeles. I met them through my wife, my wife Cecilia, she has a band and she knows lots of musicians and so I really meet most musicians through her actually. [The] band are playing songs from you know, all the records that I’ve done including Men at Work. Not all of them have been to Australia before, some of them have and some have not.

So it’s gonna be interesting for them. You’re going to quite a few different locations they’re gonna see a bit of Australia.

Colin Hay: Exactly which is fantastic, that’s what you want to do also when you come down you want to go to as many different places as you can because as you well know there’s many interesting places to see.

Hay: I finished the last album, yeah I just recorded it last year, it came out in March last year.

I recall hearing the song “Tumbling Down” on the APIA tour.

Hay:Yeah that’s from the new record yeah.

And you recorded it in LA and Nashville.

Hay: Yeah mostly Los Angeles, in my basement. And then did the strings and some over some guitar over dubs in Nashville.

Nashville is getting very popular again as the sort of place to be.

Hay: Well it’s never not been popular really, I mean it just has been growing steadily, exponentially in the last you know 10 or 20 years especially it’s growing rather fast. It’s a great place if you wanna be involved in music. You can do pretty much whatever you want to do there if you have the talent and the wherewithal and the tenacity to go there, it’s quite a lively place.

I ask about any tales from the road.

Hay: I had a show the other night at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis which is the home town of Prince. So I thought that I would do a version of Little Red Corvette which people loved. And that was just the last gig I played which was a couple nights ago. I mean touring now is really more just pacing yourself and making sure that you can remember all the words and you know stand in the right spot and all that kind of stuff

To me it’s really about the show as opposed to anything else you know. I don’t have many, you know weird road tales these days you know.

Any other memorable occasions?

Hay: Well the thing that’s memorable for me are the shows, cause that’s why you do it. You know, otherwise you just might as well stay home.

Do you prefer touring with a band or solo?

Hay: I like both, solo is kind of in a sense, as you can imagine it’s more introspective it’s more, it’s a little quieter you know, it’s a lot more solitude involved cause you’re on your own but I don’t mind that and people seem to like it, the audiences seem to like it. But traveling with a band is good too cause you know it’s a bit like a gang and you all have fun and you all kind of hang out together. It’s a little bit of a traveling circus for a while you know.

Do you miss living in Australia?

Hay: Sometimes, but I get to come down whenever I like. But I came here for a reason and you know I’ve been working here for the 30 years so, I’ve built a life here as well so I like it here as well.

Where do you see yourself going after this?

Hay: I’m just gonna come back here [LA] and see what the year holds, there will be lots of things to do. But I’m sure it will involve being down in the studio and being on the road, that’s what my life seems to be and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Mandy is a music photographer & writer. She runs Mandy Hall Media, which includes Social Media marketing, PR & Graphic Design for the music industry. She is also a web developer - she created and supports this website.